In the not-too-distant past, you could park your car in front of North Park’s Caffé Calabria coffeehouse for 15 minutes. Now, you can park your loitering keister in that same spot for as long as you want. Humming laptop, pinging phone and adorable dog are optional. San Diego, time to make yourself at home in the city’s first “parklet.”

As its namelet suggests, a “parklet” is to an actual park what towelettes are to actual towels. Which is to say it barely qualifies. In the tradition of the micro-spaces that are popping up all over the state, our barely month-old parklet on 30th Street north of University Avenue has planter boxes and seating, but no grass and no room for picturesque sprawling. There will be no Hacky Sacking in the parklet, but you can pull up a chair and watch the urban world fly by.

The Caffé Calabria parklet is part of a San Diego pilot project that could bring five to 10 more urban nooks to our city streets. Plans for the next one (on Alabama Street in North Park, near the Live Wire bar and Mama’s Bakery) are being reviewed by city staff. As we await its arrival, here is a guide to hanging out at the parklet. Just because you can.

Parklet 101: San Diego’s parklet movement was inspired by San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks Program, which attempts to relieve urban scrunch by turning parking places into open spaces stocked with chairs, greenery and urban-living accessories. This being overachieving San Francisco, that can translate into eucalyptus-tree benches, dinosaur topiaries and vertical bicycle parking.

San Diego’s first parklet project was born out of a partnership between the North Park Main Street organization and then-mayor Bob Filner’s office. North Park Main Street Executive Director Angela Landsberg pitched the idea to Filner last fall, while he was still just a candidate. The dedication ceremony was last month, ﻿with Interim Mayor Todd Gloria doing the ribbon-cutting honors.

And don’t let budgetary concerns harsh your hangout buzz. As they are elsewhere in the state, our parklets will be privately funded. Caffé Calabria owner Arne Holt picked up the tab (approximately $35,000) for the first parklet. Holt is also responsible for furnishing the 36-foot-by-8-foot ﻿space and maintaining it.

“My goal was to give people an experience and a culture that is more like Italy and France,” Holt said, taking in the chatty lunchtime crowd packed into the parklet. “Take a break. Take your time. Don’t just drive through life.”

The metal chairs, tables and counters make the parklet look like the property of the cafe, but a sign tucked away on a side railing insists otherwise. At least to the people who happen to see it. “Public Parklet,” it says. “All Seating Open to Public.”

Views from the curb: So what does one do in the parklet? You can thank the planning gods for the hedges and the low metal wall, which are all that stand between you and passing buses and trucks. You can ogle the buff mannequins in the window of the Rufskin men’s clothing store and wonder who’s visiting the Office Bar at this time of day. And you can watch the North Park sidewalk parade and wonder where you fit on the hip-scruffy-scruffily-hip continuum.